Most visual and acoustical screens for open interior office layouts are today fairly complex, fairly expensive, and fairly heavy--usually requiring for even the most minor adjustment special tools or a call to qualified maintenance personnel.
Most such screens in common use today utilize panels which are hooked into a post supporting the panels connected thereto on the floor. Even to do something as minor as slightly change the angle between adjacent panels requires complex disassembly, adjustment and reassembly procedures utilizing special tools and trained personnel. This is especially true when it is considered that the panels are normally quite heavy and cumbersome to move.
Moreover, if minor adjustments are made to such panels they tend to bind when pivoted unless completely and properly disassembled, adjusted, and then reassembled.
Some attempts have been made to alleviate this problem in folding panels and screens by providing intermeshing gearing on the tops of adjoining pivot posts. However, in such a situation, this simply further increases the complexity and cost of the system. In such a system, each panel would have its own post and interconnecting gearing simply adding to the cost and weight involved.
It is therefore desirable to have a very light weight panel which can readily be connected to adjacent panels or adjacent structures such as walls, storage or filing cabinets, or power or light columns. It is also desirable that these light weight panels may be connected quickly and conveniently and, when connected, adjusted as to angle or disposition readily without special personnel or tooling.
It is also desirable that such screens be fabric covered for both appearance as well as sound absorbing capabilities. However, to cover a panel of substantial size with fabric requires special attention to both the fabric covering, its manner of assembly with regard to the panel and the construction of the panel itself.